FSF Announces Support of Free Software Projects to Replace Components
of Microsoft .NET

Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Monday, July 9, 2001 -
The Free Software Foundation announced today the support of two Free
Software projects, Mono and DotGNU, that will offer Free Software
alternatives to components of Microsoft's .NET system. The Mono and DotGNU
projects will each offer different but complementary solutions.

The Mono Project is a community initiative to develop a Free Software,
GNU/Linux-based version of the Microsoft .NET development platform.
Incorporating key .NET compliant components, including a C# compiler, a
Common Language Runtime just-in-time compiler, and a full suite of class
libraries, the Mono Project will enable developers to create .NET
applications and run them on Windows or any Mono-supported platform,
including GNU/Linux and Unix. The Mono Project is led by Ximian, the Free
Software company co-founded by Miguel de Icaza, who has led GNU's GNOME
desktop environment to great success. The URL for the project is
http://www.go-mono.net.

The DotGNU Project is a community initiative to develop Free Software
enabling decentralized services and authentication. The DotGNU Project is
led by David Sugar, who also maintains Bayonne, the GNU telephony system,
and has recently been named the CTO of FreeDevelopers. DotGNU is centered at
Savannah, the GNU developer collaboration site. The URL for Savannah is
http://savannah.gnu.org.

Richard M. Stallman, founder of the GNU project and president of the Free
Software Foundation, said: “With Mono and DotGNU, we hope to provide good
alternatives to components of .NET, ones that will respect your freedom,
and your privacy. You will be able to use the facilities of Mono and
DotGNU either with, or without, the Internet, and using servers of your
choice.”

“We are taking the lead in providing an upgraded development platform that
enables Unix and GNU/Linux developers to capitalize on the .NET
framework. By having the Mono Project reuse the work from the GNU and GNOME
project, we can greatly accelerate the development process,” said Miguel de
Icaza, co-founder and chief technical officer at Ximian.

Stallman added: “Mono will enable you to run your C# programs on the free
GNU/Linux operating system using exclusively free software. With Mono, you
will be able to use C# if you wish, without surrendering your freedom to
study, share, change, and generally control all the software that you use.”

Sugar noted that DotGNU will avoid the centralization of services
threatened by .NET, saying: “We see no technological reason to have
services hosted and deployed from a single service provider. DotGNU will
scale so that anyone can develop and deploy network services, whether they
be an individual, large corporation, small business or government.
Distributed authentication can assure users' freedom and privacy, as well
as the privacy and integrity for commercial and government organizations.”

These two GNU efforts will insure that both commercial and
non-commercial users will have equal freedom to innovate with these new
technologies.

About GNU:

GNU is a Free Software Unix-like operating system. Development of GNU
began in 1984.

GNU/Linux is the integrated combination of the GNU operating system with
the kernel, Linux, written by Linus Torvalds in 1991. The various versions
of GNU/Linux have an estimated 20 million users.

Some people call the GNU/Linux system “Linux”, but this misnomer leads
to confusion (people cannot tell whether you mean the whole system or
the kernel, one part), and spreads an inaccurate picture of how, when
and where the system was developed. Making a consistent distinction
between GNU/Linux, the whole operating system, and Linux, the kernel, is
the best way to clear up the confusion.

About Savannah:

Savannah is a development collaboration site which is used for
collaboration and cooperation among GNU developers. It provides CVS
servers, ToDo lists, and (with our other servers) mailing lists, and web
site services. It uses a version of the SourceForge software, adapted
by GNU volunteers. Savannah can be found at http://savannah.gnu.org/.

About the Free Software Foundation:

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting
computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute
computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in
freedom) software—particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux
variants—and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to
spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use
of software. Their web site, located at http://www.gnu.org, is an
important source of information about GNU/Linux. They are headquartered in
Boston, MA, USA.